The concise new partridge dictionary of slang and Unconventional English

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang

and Unconventional English

The Concise New Partridge presents, for the first time, all the slang terms from the New Partridge

Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in a single volume.

With over 60,000 entries from around the English-speaking world, the Concise gives you the

language of beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, hippies, pimps, druggies, whores,

punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers, Valley girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers, rappers

and more.

The Concise New Partridge is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s

rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang

and Unconventional English

Tom Dalzell (Senior Editor)

and

Terry Victor (Editor)

CONTENTS

List of contributors vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xiii

Observations on slang and unconventional English xv

Entries A to Z 1

Numeric slang 721

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr Richard Allsopp, a native of Guyana, is Director of the

Caribbean Lexicography Project and former Reader in

English Language and Linguistics, University of the West

Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. He edited the Dictionary of

Caribbean English Usage.

Dr Dianne Bardsley is Manager of the New Zealand

Dictionary Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. Her

PhD involved the compilation and analysis of a rural New

Zealand English lexicon from the years 1842–2002. She

was contributing editor for the New Zealand Oxford

Dictionary and is currently leading several New Zealand

lexicography research projects.

James Lambert has worked primarily in Australian English,

specialising in slang in general and Australian slang in par￾ticular. He was assistant editor of The Macquarie Dictionary

of New Words and general editor of The Macquarie Book of

Slang and The Macquarie Slang Dictionary.

John Loftus manages the online archive at www.hiberno

english.com. He was a senior research assistant on A

Dictionary of Hiberno-English.

Lewis Poteet is a leading Canadian authority on slang and

dialect. He has written extensively about language in

Canada’s maritime provinces and edited Car & Motorcycle

Slang, Hockey Talk, Plane Talk, Car Talk and Cop Talk.

John Williams served as a consulting lexicographer on this

project. He has been contributing to general language

dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, for more than

20 years. He is the author of three children’s dictionaries, as

well as several articles on the practice of lexicography.

PREFACE

Eric Partridge made a deep and enduring contribution to

the study and understanding of slang. In the eight editions

of The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

published between 1937 and 1984, Partridge recorded and

defined the slang and unconventional English of Great

Britain, and to a lesser extent her dominions, from the

1600s to the 1970s. For the years up to 1890, Partridge

was by his own admission quite reliant on Farmer and

Henley’s Slang and its Analogues, which he used as an

‘expansible framework’. When it came to the slang for the

years 1890 to 1945, Partridge was original and brilliant,

especially in his treatment of underworld and military

slang. His attitude towards language was scholarly and

fun-loving, scientific and idiosyncratic. His body of work,

scholarship and dignity of approach led the way and set

the standard for every other English-language slang

lexicographer of the twentieth century.

Our respect for Partridge has not blinded us to the

features of his work that have drawn criticism over the

years. His protocol for alphabetising was quirky. His dating

was often problematic. His etymologies at times strayed

from the plausible to the fanciful. His classification by

register (slang, cant, jocular, vulgar, coarse, high, low, etc.)

was intensely subjective and not particularly useful.

Furthermore, his early decision to exclude American slang

created increasingly difficult problems for him as the years

passed and the influence of American slang grew. Lastly,

Partridge grew to lose the ability to relate to the

vocabulary he was recording. In 1937, Partridge was a man

of his time, but the same could no longer be said in 1960.

There is a profound relationship between language and

culture, and neither Partridge nor Paul Beale, editor of the

8th edition, seem to have assimilated the cultural changes

that began at the end of World War 2. This left them

without the cultural knowledge needed to understand the

language that they were recording. Their lack of cultural

understanding accelerated with time, and this is sadly

reflected in the later entries. Beatniks and drug addicts,

and their slang, baffled Partridge and Beale, who lacked

either the personal experience or historical perspective

needed to understand underlying countercultures.

Partridge himself observed, ‘More than almost any

other kind of book, a dictionary constantly needs to be

revised; especially, of course, if it deals with the current

form of a language and therefore has to be kept up to

date’. With The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and

Unconventional English we tried to do just that. We picked

up where Partridge left off, recording the slang and

unconventional English of the English-speaking world since

World War 2 with the same scholarship and joy in

language that characterised Partridge’s work. We are not,

and cannot be, Partridge: but we can strive to be proud

heirs of Partridge and to speak with a voice that Partridge

would recognise as an echo of his own. We have worked

hard to continue the Partridge tradition, observing high

standards of lexicography while producing an accessible

work informed by, and infused with, the humour, mischief

and energy that are endemic to slang. This Concise

version of the New Partridge contains every entry in New

Partridge as well as several hundred new words that have

come into the slang lexicon since 2005. The Concise is

presented without the hundreds of thousands of citations

in the New Partridge, creating an affordable alternative to

our update of Partridge. Lastly, we improved dating infor￾mation given on hundreds of headwords.

Criteria for inclusion

We use three criteria for including a term or phrase in this

dictionary. We include (1) slang and unconventional

English, (2) used anywhere in the English-speaking world

and (3) after 1945.

Rather than focus too intently on a precise definition

of slang or on whether a given entry is slang, jargon or

colloquial English, we take full advantage of the wide net

cast by Partridge when he chose to record ‘slang and

unconventional English’ instead of just slang, which is,

after all, without any settled test of purity. We have con￾sidered for inclusion all unconventional English that has

been used with the purpose or effect of either lowering

the formality of communication and reducing solemnity

and/or identifying status or group and putting oneself in

tune with one’s company. A term recorded here might be

slang, slangy jargon, a colloquialism, an acronym, an

initialism, a vulgarism or a catchphrase. In all instances,

an entry imparts a message beyond the text and literal

meaning. This approach is especially useful when dealing

with world slang and unconventional English. A broader

range has permitted inclusion of many Caribbean entries,

for instance, which merit inclusion but might not meet a

stringent pure-slang-only test. Our only real deviation from

Partridge’s inclusion criteria is a much diminished body of

nicknames. The regiment nicknames that populate

Partridge’s work no longer fulfil the language function that

they did in the United Kingdom of Partridge’s day.

If there was a question as to whether a potential

entry fell within the target register, we erred on the side of

inclusion. We generally chose to include poorly attested

words, presenting the entry and our evidence of usage to

the reader who is free to determine if a candidate passes

probation.

Partridge limited his dictionary to Great Britain and

her dominions. We elected the broader universe of the

English-speaking world. Globalisation has affected many

facets of life, not the least of which is our language. There

are words that are uniquely Australian, American or

British, but it is impossible to ignore or deny the extent of

cross-pollination that exists between cultures as regards

slang. We were aided in our global gathering by

indigenous contributors from Australia, Canada, the

Caribbean, Ireland and New Zealand. We also include

pidgin, Creolised English and borrowed foreign terms used

by English-speakers in primarily English-language

conversation. We include slang and unconventional English

heard and used at any time after 1945. We chose the end

of the war in 1945 as our starting point primarily because

it marked the beginning of a series of profound cultural

changes that produced the lexicon of modern and

contemporary slang. The cultural transformations since

1945 are mind-boggling. Television, computers, drugs,

music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial

sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all

substantial factors that have shaped culture and language.

No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be

considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or

any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and

citations that will, and should, offend. To exclude a term

or citation because it is offensive is to deny the fact that

it is used: we are not prescriptivists and this is simply not

our job. At the same time, we try to avoid definitions or

editorial comment that might offend.

We were tempted, but finally chose not to include an

appendix of gestures, although many serve the same

function as slang. Examples include the impudent middle

finger, Ralph Cramden’s Raccoon greeting and handshake,

the elaborate mimes that signal ‘jerk-off’ or ‘dickhead’,

Johnny Carson’s golf swing, Vic Reeves’ lascivious thigh

rubbing and Arsenio Hall’s finger-tip-touch greeting.

Neither did we include an appendix of computer language

such as emoticons or leet speak, although we have

included throughout several of the more prominent

examples of Internet and text messaging shorthand that

have become known outside the small circle of initial

users.

We tried but in the end decided not to include the

word/word phenomenon (‘Is she your friend friend or

friend friend?’) or the word/word/word construction (‘The

most important three things in real estate are location,

location, location’). We could not include the obvious

pregnant silence that suggests ‘fuck’ (‘What the **** do

you think you’re doing?’). We shied away from the

lexicalised animal noises that often work their way into

informal conversation, such as a cat noise when someone

is behaving nastily. We similarly did not include musical

phrases that have become part of our spoken vocabulary,

such as the four-note theme of The Twilight Zone which is

used to imply an uncanny weirdness in any coincidence, or

melodramatic hummed violin music that serves as vocal

commentary on any piteous tale.

Using The Concise New Partridge

We hope that our presentation is self-evident and that it

requires little explanation. We use only a few abbreviations

and none of the stylistic conceits near and dear to the

hearts of lexicographers.

Headwords

We use indigenous spelling for headwords. This is

especially relevant in the case of the UK arse and US ass.

For Yiddish words, we use Leo Rosten’s spelling, which

favours ‘sh-’ over ‘sch-’. An initialism is shown in upper

case without full stops (for example, BLT), except that

acronyms (pronounced like individual lexical items) are

lower case (for example, snafu).

Including every variant spelling of a headword

seemed neither practical nor helpful to the reader. For the

spelling of headwords, we chose the form found in

standard dictionaries or the most common forms, ignoring

uncommon variants as well as common hyphenation

variants of compounds and words ending in ‘ie’ or ‘y’. For

this reason, citations may show variant spellings not found

in the headword.

Placement of phrases

As a general rule, phrases are placed under their first sig￾nificant word. However, some invariant phrases are listed

as headwords; for example, a stock greeting, stock reply or

catchphrase. Terms that involve a single concept are

grouped together as phrases under the common

headword; for example, burn rubber, lay rubber and peel

rubber are all listed as phrases under the headword

rubber.

Definition

In dealing with slang from all seven continents, we

encountered more than a few culture-specific terms. For

such terms, we identify the domain or geographic location

of the term’s usage. We use conventional English in the

definitions, turning to slang only when it is both

substantially more economical than the use of convention￾al English and is readily understood by the average reader.

Gloss

The voice and tone of The New Partridge Dictionary of

Slang and Unconventional English is most obvious in the

gloss: the brief explanations that Partridge used for ‘edi￾torial comment’ or ‘further elucidation’. Partridge warned

against using the gloss to show what clever and learned

fellows we are – a warning that we heed to the very

limited extent it could apply to us. We chose to

discontinue Partridge’s classification by register.

Country of origin

As is the case with dating, further research will

undoubtedly produce a shift in the country of origin for a

number of entries. We resolutely avoided guesswork and

informed opinion.

Dating

Even Beale, who as editor of the 8th edition was the direct

inheritor of Partridge’s trust, noted that Partridge’s dating

‘must be treated with caution’. We recognise that the

accurate dating of slang is far more difficult than dating

conventional language. Virtually every word in our lexicon

is spoken before it is written, and this is especially true of

unconventional terms. The recent proliferation of elec￾tronic databases and powerful search engines will

undoubtedly permit the antedating of many of the entries.

Individualised dating research, such as Allen Walker’s hunt

for the origin of ‘OK’ or Barry Popik’s exhaustive work on

terms such as ‘hot dog’, produces dramatic antedatings:

we could not undertake this level of detailed research for

every entry.

Conclusion

In the preface to his 1755 Dictionary of the English

Language, Samuel Johnson noted that ‘A large work is

difficult because it is large,’ and that ‘Every writer of a

long work commits errors’. In addition to improvements in

our dating of terms and identification of the country of

origin, it is inevitable that some of our definitions are

Preface x

incorrect or misleading, especially where the sense is

subtle and fleeting, defying paraphrasing, or where kindred

senses are interwoven. It is also inevitable that some

quotations are included in a mistaken sense. For these

errors, we apologise in advance.

We carry the flame for words that are usually judged

only by the ill-regarded company they keep. Just as

Partridge did for the sixteenth century beggars and rakes,

for whores of the eighteenth century, and for the armed

services of the two world wars, we try to do for the slang

users of the last 60 years. We embrace the language of

beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, hippies,

pimps, druggies, whores, punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers,

Valley Girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers,

rappers and more. We have tried to do what Partridge saw

as necessary, which was simply to keep up to date.

Tom Dalzell, Berkeley, California

Terry Victor, Caerwent, South Wales

Spring 2005

Re-edited for the Concise edition in the spring of 2007

xi Preface

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our debt to Sophie Oliver defies description. With good

humour and a saintly tolerance for our so-called wit and

attempts to corrupt, she herded this project through from

a glimmer in the eye to print on the page.

We bow to and thank the following who helped along

the way: Mary Ann Kernan, who was charged with putting

this project together in 1999 and 2000; John Williams,

who must be credited for all that is right about our

lexicography and excused for anything that is not; Robert

Hay and Mike Tarry of Alden for their unending work on

the database and cheerful handling of every problem we

could throw at them; Claire L’Enfant; James Folan for

rescuing us in the content edit phase; Louise Hake for her

cheerful determination in the editing and production

phases; our fine copy editors Sandra Anderson, Howard

Sargeant and Laura Wedgeworth; and Aine Duffy for her

enthusiastically scurrilous vision of the whole project as it

developed.

Finally, we thank Oxford University Press for

providing us with access to the ‘Oxford English Dictionary

Online’, a brilliant online presentation of the Oxford

English Dictionary, one of the leading sources for dating.

Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor

This dictionary would never have seen the light of day

without the time and support given to me by my family –

Cathy most notably, also Jake, Julia, Rosalie and Charlotte.

I thank and owe you big-time, major league and

humongously. Who knew it would take so much? In their

own ways, and from a distance, my parents guided.

Audrey, Emily and Reggae started the project with me but

did not stay for the end.

I also thank: my slang mentors Paul Dickson and

Madeline Kripke (and better mentors you could not hope

for); Archie Green, who saved Peter Tamony’s work for

posterity and encouraged me throughout this project;

Jesse Sheidlower, Jonathon Green and Susan Ford, slang

lexicographers, friends and comrades in words; Dr Lisa

Winer for her voluminous and fine work on the slang of

Trinidad and Tobago; Jan Tent for his excellent collection

of Fijian slang; Dr Jerry Zientara, the learned and helpful

librarian at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human

Sexuality in San Francisco, which kindly opened its

incomparable library to me; Tom Miller, Bill Stolz, John

Konzal and Patricia Walker, archivists at the Western

Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri at

Columbia, for their help and insights during my work with

the Peter Tamony archives; the Hon. Sir Colville Young for

leading me to Richard Allsopp; Jim Holliday for his help on

the slang of pornography; Jennifer Goldstein for her help

on the slang of sex dancers; Richard Perlman for his

patient and Zen-like technological help; Angela Jacobson,

Elizabeth McInnis and Caitlan Perlman, who helped as

readers; Mr Baldwin, Mr Muir, Mr Lee, Dr Robert Regan

and Dr Gordon Kelly for the English and popular culture

they taught me.

I thank my fellow language writers and

lexicographers who were generous in their encouragement,

advice and assistance: Reinhold Aman, a brave and

brilliant pioneer, the late Robert Chapman, Gerald Cohen,

Trevor Cralle, Jim Crotty, Connie Eble, Jonathan Lighter,

Edward MacNeal, Geoffrey Nunberg, Judi Sanders, Leslie

Savan and Oliver Trager.

Our Australian contributor, James Lambert, was given

recourse to the various databases of the Macquarie Library

Pty Ltd, who publish synchronic dictionaries for the

Australian and Asian markets, and for these vast resources

we are grateful.

Lastly, I acknowledge Terry Victor. The demands of

this project have only strengthened our friendship.

Tom Dalzell

My wife, Liz, deserves a dictionary entry of her own as a

definition of tolerance, patience and encouragement way

beyond conventional expectations. In the wider world, my

sister and family added to both my library and vocabulary;

and my other family, now in Spain, even went so far as to

put a christening on hold until a deadline had been met,

as well as allowing me access to the playground language

of our time. I must also thank Gerri Smith for her tolerant

understanding that I could not be in two places at once.

Serendipity brought me to Tom Dalzell and through

him I have had the advantage and benefit of all of the

influences and providers of expertise that he names

above, especially Jonathon Green. In addition to those

named I am grateful for the knowledgeable

encouragement of Michael Quinion and David Crystal;

and, in matters polari, Paul Baker.

For particular contributions I would like to thank:

Flight Lieutenant Andrew Resoli; Lisa and Tim Hale; David

Morrison; some of the inmates at HMP High Down in the

summer of 2002; Antonio Lillo for his work on rhyming

slang; various magazine editors and journalists who

addressed so many of my queries of modern usage; and,

for a splendid collection of cocaine-related slang, a certain

group of musicians (whose management would prefer

that they remain anonymous). I also enjoyed the advan￾tage of the correspondence that the Partridge and Beale

8th edition still attracts: I am grateful to all who wrote

in, and I look forward to seeing more contributions at

www.partridge-slang.com.

Above all, I must make mention of two people: Eric

Partridge, who is my hero, and Tom Dalzell, who is my

friend.

Terry Victor